EKWUEME, EKWEREMADU INSIST ON PDP CHAIR FOR S-EAST

By Tony Edike
ENUGU - SECOND Republic Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday, asked the national leadership of the  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to consider the demand by the South East geopolitical zone to retain the position of  national chairman of the party.

According to them, anything short of that will not be acceptable to the people of the zone.

Leaders of the party in the zone had, after a meeting in Enugu last week, asked the relevant organs of the party to ensure that the party's topmost position was returned to the South East, since the zone was yet to serve out its four-years in office as prescribed by Article 14(5) of the party's constitution.

A close aide of the former Vice President who preferred anonymity, told Vanguard in Enugu that Dr Ekwueme had already started reaching out to other major party stakeholders across the country, with a view to ensuring that the zone retained the position.

He said: 'I can comfortably tell you that His Excellency is determined to ensure that the zone gets back what rightly belongs to them.

'We are talking about a position that was zoned to us and suddenly some people are talking about taking it from us even when we have not exhausted our mandate.'

Also speaking on the issue, Ekweremadu dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the party hierarchy had zoned the national chairmanship to the North East zone, insisting that being a member of the party's national caucus, he was not aware of any meeting where zoning of the party's top position was discussed.

He, however, said the South East was not opposed to the position going to other zones but emphasized that due process must be followed in taking the decision.